Changing plans

Some things have happened that change everything about our plans.

I had been anticipating graduation in May of this year, based on plans to transfer credit from another seminary that I completed before coming to St. Louis. I have just found out (mere hours after I wrote the last post) that this credit will not transfer, and the result is that I have more hours to complete at Covenant than I am able to do in one semester. Therefore, we have revised our plans, now planning to graduate in December 2005.

This implications of this for our candidacy are not as bad as it seems that they would be. Since we haven't had much progress so far, it is no big deal to simply phase our search back a notch or two. Essentially, this means that we are, right now, at the same place we (thought we) were last June-- about 11 months out from graduation and starting to survey the landscape.

The biggest frustration is that I thought I had a good feel for the lay of the land: I knew what churches were searching, and I had several strong prospects that I felt were promising. I also had the "inside track" of sorts on a few opportunities that weren't common knowledge. Now, none of these really matter for our search, and I'll have to start from scratch to get to this point again.

The best part is that God knows exactly what is in store for us, and He knew all along that our graduation would happen in His timing. If I won't finish until December, I can trust that He knows better than me what great things that holds.